A Chorus Line

A Chorus Line

Ok, fine. So now you know my secret shame: I kinda like Richard Attenborough’s A Chorus Line. It’s an exuberant movie, filled with largely schmaltzy music, a few stand-out numbers, and a capable cast led by Michael Douglas as the iron-fisted choreographer, who auditions sixteen dancers for a shot at the chorus in a major new Broadway production.

Keep an eye on Charles McGowan (“I Can Do That”) and Yamil Borges (“Nothing”), who, respectively, deliver the most entertaining and heartbreaking solos in the film. And Audrey Landers has a lot of fun singing the praises of plastic surgery with “Tits & Ass.” Attenborough, a director of considerable talent (he won an Oscar for directing Gandhi), balances well the nervous anticipation of the audition process with bright, buoyant musical interludes, as in the famous closing number, “One.”

It’s a fun, but not great movie, the cast is very good, and you might even find yourself humming a few bars after you’ve seen it. And I’ll ask that you keep my little secret shame just between the two of us.